Saturday, April 25, 2009
I take tours through my past with the movies I watched. Books too, and music, but there's something about movies that make me extra nostalgic. Maybe it's the communal nature of watching them.
1989 was the end of the 80's. The end of innocence. Not to the world in whole; that has never been innocent. My innocence. Though I came up in the 70's, I feel a greater affinity to the 1980's.
It was the last gasp of the home video hysteria. Fewer were having movie parties. In the mid 80's, it seemed like everyone was having them. The VHS revolution had still been fresh. In time it was apparent who the faddists were and who were the genuine lovers of cinema.
Researching this, I see that I was becoming more selective in my viewing. I wasn't renting as many crappy direct-to-video productions with catchy titles. I was weaning off of a lot of studio fare as well. Looking over this list, I'm almost shocked to see that to date I have never watched some sequels of movies I loved, like Fletch and Ghostbusters. I couldn't gather any enthusiasm over them.
Not to say I didn't watch my share of turkey's as this will prove. Still, for various reasons I liked everything I put here. Even while I cringe at the memory of things like Martians Go Home, Star Trek 5 and C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the C.H.U.D. As bad as these movies are, I had a good time roasting them with friends in joyous pre-MST3K abandon.
Horror wasn't exactly healthy. This was the end of the Decade of Fear and few really good movies were released. The old standbys franchises were in need of serious overhauls: Friday the 13th 8: Jason Takes Manhattan, Halloween 5 and Nightmare On Elm Street 5 are arguably the worst of their respective series'. Craven tried to score another Freddy with Shocker, to the dismay of almost everyone. But Pet Semetery was a good adaptation of King's novel and was a financial success. Scott Speigel's Intruder and Cutting Class came in a little too late to cash in on the slasher wave. The cerebral Exorcist 3 was an amazing movie, but it failed to please those that wanted more flying pea soup. J.R. Bookwalter and Tony Elwood's Killer anticipated the underground movie frenzy that would come just a few years later.
Though I loved many movies of 1980, it was a weaker year than any other of the 80's. Moviegoers were in need of a change, which would come about shortly. But I have some true favorites, with Great Balls of Fire, Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, Santa Sangre and Crimes and Misdemeanors at the top of my list.
Everything changed in the 90's and I'll be back to chronicle them. Just don't expect it too soon. It's a lot of work to compile these lists and while I tried to be as complete as possible, I'm certain that I overlooked certain gems.
Without further ado...
The Abyss A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child After Midnight Aisles of Doom Assault of the Party Nerds Back Street Jane Back to the Future 2 Batman Baxter Beverly Hills Vamp Beyond the Door III Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure* Black Rain Black Rainbow Blaze* Blind Fury Bloodfist Blue Steel Born on the Fourth of July Breaking In Brothers in Arms The 'burbs* C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death Casualties of War Cat Chaser Chances Are Chattahoochee Christmas Vacation Communion Crimes and Misdemeanors* Cutting Class Cyborg Dead Bang Dead Calm The Dead Next Door Dead Poets Society DeepStar Six Disorganized Crime Dream a Little Dream Drugstore Cowboy Edge of Sanity The Exorcist III Field of Dreams Gnaw: Food of the Gods 2 Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan Great Balls of Fire!* Gross Anatomy Halloween 5 Headhunter Heavy Petting Hell High Hollywood Boulevard II* The Horror Show I, Madman Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Intruder Johnny Handsome Kickboxer Killer Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects Last Exit to Brooklyn* Leningrad Cowboys Go America* Lisa Lock Up Martians Go Home Masque of the Red Death Meet the Feebles Mystery Train New York Stories No Such Thing As Gravity Out of the Dark Parenthood Parents Penn & Teller Get Killed* Pet Sematary The Phantom of the Opera Psycho Cop The Punisher Puppetmaster Red Scorpion Relentless The Return of Swamp Thing Road House Rude Awakening Santa Sangre* Savage Beach Say Anything... * Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills* Sea of Love Shocker Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland Society Sonny Boy* Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Stepfather II Stripped to Kill II: Live Girls The Terror Within Think Big True Believer Twister UHF* The Unbelievable Truth* Uncle Buck Vice Academy Warlock
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